Especially attractive, the Wilmington Riverwalk and streets near Cape Fear River have numerous gift shops, galleries, bars and restaurants, including some in relocated buildings.

A young woman glances at a dog on the downtown Wilmington Riverwalk boardwalk beside Cape Fear River. (Ian Robertson)

Popular today with kayakers and canoeists, the river got its name in the late 1500s for fast Atlantic Ocean tidal flows, which made ship-handling hazardous.

Today, large ships are permitted if certified for navigation or guided by a trained Cape Fear River pilot. Water taxis, tour boats and a U.S. Coast Guard vessel are available to visitors, and tall sailing ships must lower their masts to pass under 924-metre, four-lane Cape Fear Memorial Bridge.

As I joined horse-drawn carriage driver John Pucci before we headed to the old quarter, a brilliant late afternoon sun scattered diamond-like sparkles across the waves along the 2.82-kilometre Wilmington Riverwalk.

A carriage horse at Market St. tour rendezvous prepares to show customers old homes and streets in Wilmington. (Ian Robertson)

A few blocks away, azaleas and other blossoms decorated richly green lawns, and twinkling lights of chandeliers were visible through the unadorned windows of several colonial-era homes. Among the most popular, Mitchell-Anderson House was finished in 1738, and 22-room visitor-welcoming Bellamy Mansion was completed for a doctor and his family in Greek Revival and Italianate style in 1861.

Smaller homes included two 1920’s bungalows ordered from the Sears catalogue, at $750 each.

Ghost Walk stories about pirates and victims in brick tunnels along the riverfront, where boilers of some of the 66 ships that sank after being abandoned are visible at low tide, will shiver your timbers. At Latimer House, an 1852 dwelling housing the Lower Cape Fear Historical Society, did that old book levitate? Did the family’s five children not move on after succumbing to youthful illnesses?

Built for Dr. John D. Bellamy, a prominent plantation owner, physician and businessman between 1859 and 1861, the 22-room Bellamy Mansion combines Neoclassical architectural styles including Greek Revival and Italianate. (Ian Robertson)

Known by several names after English settlers arrived 300 years ago, the community was named after Spencer Compton, the 1st Earl of Wilmington, a British prime minister.

Early flat-bottom riverboats transported tar, turpentine, tobacco, livestock, locally grown rice and cotton, plus inland-harvested yellow pine used for shipbuilding in England. During the American Revolution, protesters rallying against British taxes prompted the North Carolina colony’s governor to relocate his capital.

In 1840, the first railroad line was the world’s longest — a fact celebrated in the Wilmington Railroad Museum. The first clue to the contents of a former 1880’s freight house on Nutt St. is a 1910 Atlantic Coast Line steam locomotive, a caboose and a boxcar.

Railroading and shipping resulted in wealth and growth. The magnificent city hall and the still highly active adjacent Thalian Hall opera house were completed in the 1850s.

During the Second World War, 243 vessels were built at a local shipyard and three prisoner-of-war camps housed German captives.

Highly popular with tourists, the massive 1940 U.S.S. North Carolina battleship is berthed on the waterfront.

U.S.S. North Carolina, a U.S. Navy battleship built in 1940, is open for public tours in a permanent site beside Cape Fear River, opposite downtown Wilmington. (Ian Robertson)

Today, with almost 120,000 residents, much of the old warehouse district has been replaced by apartments, condominiums and hotels, plus a convention centre. There are several large industries, plus the University of North Carolina Wilmington and Cape Fear Community College.

More than 400 film, TV and commercial projects have been made at EUE Screen Gems Studios and on the coast since 1984.

I particularly enjoyed two eateries: the Pilot House Restaurant on Wilmington Riverwalk, where scallop-and-fish chowder plus grilled tuna with brown rice was a super lunch; and the Pinpoint Restaurant on Market St., which has old hardwood floors, red brick walls, oil paintings and padded bench seats behind wooden tables and chairs, and served me an excellent crisp flounder dinner with homemade breads and key lime pie.

GETTING THERE

Wilmington is the eastern terminus of Interstate 40 highway.

American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines use Wilmington International Airport.